TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — An Indiana nun once banished from her congregation by a bishop will be proclaimed a saint Sunday, providing a model of virtuous life to America's Roman Catholics — even if they find themselves at odds with church leaders.

Pope Benedict XVI will canonize Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin as the first new U.S. saint in six years, a span marked in this country by the scandal over the sexual abuse of minors by clergy.

The pontiff also will canonize a Mexican bishop and two Italians who founded religious orders.

Guerin's life story can inspire those struggling in their own faith, said members of the religious order she founded, the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary-of-the-Woods.

Guerin led a group of six French nuns who arrived in Indiana on Oct. 22, 1840, to establish a community in the woods outside Terre Haute. She and Vincennes Bishop Celestin de la Hailandiere struggled over control of the fledgling order, and he dismissed Guerin from her vows, threatened her with excommunication and banished her for a time from St. Mary-of-the-Woods. She did not return until after his resignation in 1847.

Guerin raised money and built an academy for girls billed as the oldest Roman Catholic college for women in the U.S. It's known today as St. Mary-of-the-Woods College.

Today the order has 465 sisters, with 10 women currently in formation to become nuns.

Guerin, who died in 1856 at the age of 57, remains a role model for women at the college today, said Samantha Dumm, a 19-year-old sophomore from Morgantown, Ind., who is traveling with other students to the Vatican for Sunday's canonization.

Guerin's path toward sainthood began in 1909 and accelerated earlier this year with the approval of the necessary second miracle attributed to her intercession. Phil McCord, an engineer who manages the campus of Guerin's order, had faced a corneal transplant but regained his vision in 2000 after praying for her help.